Episode 19: Lockdown
by Castle Season 9
Summary: It's Beckett's final day of work before maternity leave, and she's expecting it to be uneventful. But when the precinct is cut off from the outside world, the race is on to catch a killer in their midst. Season 9, Episode 19.
1. Chapter 1

**Lockdown**

Season 9, Episode 19

Written by SeriesTherapy and Trinity Everett

 _This is a work of fiction by writers with no professional connection to ABC network's Castle. Recognizable characters are the property of Andrew Marlowe and ABC. Names, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental._

* * *

It wasn't even six o'clock in the morning when Captain Beckett set foot in the precinct. As usual, she stopped to chat with the desk sergeant for a moment, and then she took the elevator to the fourth floor. The night shift was coming to an end, and there were only a few early birds like herself, so the place looked emptier than normal. All the activity progressed at a slower pace at that time, as the workers waited for the caffeine to kick in.

Beckett didn't mind the early start. She never had. She found that the quiet helped her think.

And while Ryan might not share the sentiment about arriving with the sun, she wasn't surprised to find him nose-deep in paperwork at this early hour. She knew that it was because he wanted to be able to knock off earlier in the afternoon to spend more time with his family.

"Morning, Ryan," she greeted on her way to her office.

"Hey, boss, what are you doing here?" Ryan asked. "I didn't think you'd come in this early on your last day."

"I have to make sure everything's ready," she answered.

It was going to be her last day before her maternity leave, and, besides a bit of paperwork to complete, everything was set for her departure. She just had to tie up a few loose ends, nothing serious.

On days like this, when she arrived at the precinct so early - or rather, when Castle stayed at home - she had developed a ritual. The first thing she would do was to leave her things and turn on her computer. Then, she would go get a cup of coffee while the computer whirred to life. She preferred the coffees her husband provided, but getting her caffeine fix couldn't always wait. Of course, those days, her coffee had to be decaf, but old habits die hard. This morning was no different.

She took her time to fix her coffee the way she liked it, and then she returned to her desk, ready to face the neverending pile of paperwork. She was in the middle of replying to an email from 1PP about her maternity leave when suddenly, all the lights went off, and the whole floor was filled with darkness. She clumsily stood from her chair, managing to get to the door by gripping the edge of her desk and letting what little light came in through the closed blinds guide her.

"Don't worry, it's just a blackout," she exclaimed, loud enough for everyone to hear above the growing clamor of voices. "The backup generator will pick up in a second."

No sooner had she said those words than the lights came back on, and she saw a few officers sigh, clearly relieved.

"See? Nothing to worry ab-"

But her sentence was cut off abruptly by a chorus of screams and loud bangs coming from the distance.

"It seems to be coming from holding," Vikram said from the door of the tech room.

Beckett just had to share a look with Ryan to send him running in the general direction of the noises, gun unholstered and ready. Her pregnancy made it difficult for her to follow, so she got to the scene a few seconds after him and a few others. The first thing that caught her attention was the body of an officer on the floor.

"It's Parker. He was in charge of holding last night," LT informed her.

Ryan was crouched next to the body, his hand on the man's neck, checking for vitals. He shook his head and turned to look at Beckett.

"He's dead," he confirmed.

Beckett was still absorbing this information when she heard LT speak again. The urgency in his voice was unmistakable.

"The cells," he said. "The cells are open."

"And empty," Ryan added, running a hand over his face.

"I need to call this in," Beckett said, patting her pocket only to find it empty of her cell phone. Damn it, she must've left it on her desk. "Ryan, can I–"

"Sure, boss." He unlocked the phone for her, handing it over. She smiled briefly at his background photo before pulling up the dial pad and tapping out Gates's phone number.

Only to have nothing happen.

Lifting the phone away from her ear, she found the words _No Service_ staring back at her.

"You get signal in here usually?" she asked.

"Yeah, full strength. Why?"

Beckett showed him the phone. "Because you've got nothing right now."

The others rumbled similar sentiments as they checked their phones. Her stomach dropped when one of the officers lifted the handset in the corner and said the same thing about the landline.

"There's no dial tone, Captain."

Scanning the room to assess the situation, Beckett reacted before any of the people present could say another word. She turned to the officers behind her and spoke in a very clear voice.

"Baker, Sanders, I need you to head downstairs, head outside, use your phones or find one that works. Call Gates at 1PP, tell her we have a situation. Tell her we're working to resolve it, but nobody leaves this building until we find the person responsible for this. Block all exits. From this moment on, the precinct is on lockdown."

* * *

The hot water was doing wonders for his mood. Kyle had worked the night shift, and he was almost daydreaming about his bed. But before that, he had a date. The prospect was enough to bring a tired smile to his face. With Alexis's graduation fast approaching, they barely had any time to see each other, so they had resorted to sharing a few meals here and there, between his shifts and her classes and study sessions.

Alexis was supposed to meet him outside the precinct to go to one of their favorite diners for breakfast, but he still had a few minutes to enjoy the warmth of the shower before he had to get going.

He was still musing about their plans when, suddenly, the lights went out in the locker room. Efficiently removing the last remnants of shampoo from his hair, he turned the handle to stop the flow of water, and blindly reached for the towel. He managed to find it and exit the small cubicle when the lights went back on, and he almost let go of the towel when he saw another man in the room.

"Wow, man, I didn't see you there!" he exclaimed, grabbing the towel more firmly around his hips.

"Well, obviously," the other man said, fastening the last buttons of his shirt. "There was no light."

"Yeah, well... What do you think that was about?" Kyle asked while he put his clothes on as quickly as he could.

"Dunno," the man shrugged. "I'm sure it was nothing. Don't worry about it."

Kyle noticed the man struggled slightly to breathe, probably from the effort of getting dressed at such high speed as he was. He was struggling himself, after all.

"Maybe," Kyle conceded, "but I'm not too sure. Something feels weird."

"So what? You're one of those cops who walk around following 'hunches' and all that crap? A blackout is a blackout, supercop."

He didn't respond, deciding it was not worth it. Given the time, the other man probably was just as tired as he was.

"Crap, Mark, the precinct is under lockdown!"

The exclamation came from another man barging into the room, out of breath and clearly disturbed, if the way his chest heaved was any indication. His uniform was disheveled, and drops of sweat ran down his face.

"Lockdown?" Kyle asked, wanting to make sure he heard correctly.

The other officer turned to Kyle with a surprised expression, seeming to realize he and Mark weren't alone in the locker room.

"Yes, that's what I heard," the newcomer - Officer Reynolds, according to his badge - confirmed.

"We have to find out what's going on," Kyle said as he grabbed his gun. "Let's go."

* * *

Giving his phone another glance, Castle wasn't entirely surprised to see the text he had sent his wife as he left their bed was still unread. Kate had been going to the precinct early every day for the past week to get things taken care of before her maternity leave started, and nearly every day her hope of having an easy, quiet day had fallen by the wayside. More than once, he had walked into the precinct a few hours after texting to find her desk empty and hear she was on her way back from an impromptu meeting with Gates. But at this hour, he had to hope that Beckett just hadn't yet had the chance to look at her phone.

He planned to join her at lunch and stay for the rest of her last day on the job, but they had decided to divide and conquer for the morning. In fact, his goal for the first part of the day was to take care of signing the large pile of books that Gina had sent over a week ago, and take the even larger pile of things he and Beckett had decided they could part with to a donation center by the time Kate returned home.

And he would get started on those tasks quite soon, after a delicious, hearty breakfast. His pan was almost up to temperature, which meant he needed to get his eggs and chopped peppers whisked quickly. Once he got that part in the pan, he would tackle making his toast.

Breakfast of champions. And best-selling novelists who wanted to have enough energy to get the house ready for their daughter's arrival.

Rick smiled to himself; just a few more weeks and Lily would be here, which was both wonderful and terrifying wrapped in one. It had been a long time since he'd had a newborn.

Engrossed as he was in planning ahead, he almost missed his phone's insistent buzz from the opposite countertop. Scooping it up, Castle answered the call without bothering to look at the display. After all, it was probably his wife calling to talk about his text; she had developed a habit of doing that lately, not wanting to take the chance that she would be pulled away before she managed to finish typing the message.

"Missing me yet, Beckett?" he teased, tucking the phone between his shoulder and his ear to be able to continue to whisk the eggs.

"I'm glad you opened with that, pathetic as it was, because I did not want to hear your other pillow talk," Esposito clipped in greeting. Castle straightened, his mouth opening to defend himself, but his friend didn't give him the chance. "Have you talked to her recently? Beckett."

Castle stopped, straightening his back. What was going on? "Not since she left earlier, why?"

"Look, I don't want you to panic – or do anything stupid – but–"

Dread tumbled through his chest, sending his heart into his throat. Nothing good ever followed being told not to panic, especially when it came from Esposito. "What happened?"

"There's a situation down here," Esposito started. "The precinct's under lockdown."

"I'm on my way," he said, yanking the burner knob hard to the right – so hard he hoped he hadn't broken the thing.

"No, listen. Listen to me. You need to stay put."

Yeah, too damn late for that. "I'll be right there."

Esposito growled in his ear. "Did you not hear what I just said?"

"I heard you, and I'm not sure calm and 'the precinct's under lockdown' necessarily go together," Castle snapped, forcing himself to take a breath as he moved to his bedroom and shoved his feet into the first non-slipper shoes he could find. "Sorry. Focused. What the hell happened?"

"Still trying to figure that out. I wasn't on shift yet, so I don't know what triggered it, but I got a call from 1PP telling me there'd been an incident, and I just confirmed for myself that there's no getting in or out right now. Radio is down. So are the phones, landline and cell. I had to walk to the end of the block just to get a signal to call you."

That did nothing to reassure him. Not a damn thing.

"Since she was emailing me earlier, I'm going to assume Beckett was at work, right? Not out of the house for any other reason?"

Castle rubbed his forehead, looking around for a button-down to throw on over his t-shirt. "Yeah. Yeah, she went in early again today."

"Ryan did, too. Sarah Grace has pee-wee gymnastics tonight. Which means they're both in there," Esposito added, though from the volume, Castle had a feeling it was a thought the detective had meant to keep to himself.

"So what do we do?" he asked, taking stock of his progress – he had his phone in hand, which meant he needed keys and his wallet. "Sneak in the back? Look for secret messages on the blinds?"

Esposito sighed. "I'm not going to convince you to stay home, am I?"

"While my wife and my friends are under lockdown and we can't even communicate with them? Not a chance."

"In that case, why don't you meet me at your office – your old office, whatever – and maybe Hayley can help us figure out what the hell's going on."

Castle nodded, making a mental note to call Hayley and give her a heads up after he and Espo finished talking. "I'm on my way."

Seconds later, he was on his way out the door, giving the pile of donations waiting by the stairs a short look.

Spring cleaning would have to wait.


	2. Chapter 2

"What do we know so far?" Beckett asked the detectives assembled in the conference room.

"It wasn't just a blackout. The phones aren't working, neither are the radios. The computers are back up, but there's no internet. We're basically disconnected from the outside world," Vikram informed her. "I'm working on restoring everything, but it's going to take a little time."

"Okay, get to it now," Beckett instructed, and the man nodded before leaving the room. "Do we know how Officer Parker was killed?"

"They snapped his neck. Based on the prisoners' stature and physical condition, any of them could have done it," one of the detectives explained.

"Have we found the prisoners yet?"

"Not yet, but it's our priority right now," an older man, Sergeant Sawyer, replied. "I've got teams sweeping each floor. They will turn up sooner rather than later."

"Good. What else can you tell me about them?"

"There were four people in lockup when the lights went off, but they were all gone before they came back on," another detective explained. "I'd bet our guy killed Parker, then released the others before he took off."

"Did anybody see anything?"

"I heard loud noises coming from that general direction," Detective Karpowski answered, "but in all the confusion, I couldn't make out any words. I couldn't reach the door before the backup generator kicked in, though. I was the one to find the body of Officer Parker, so they must have passed by me in the darkness. I'm so sorry, Captain."

"It's okay. Anyone else?" Beckett pressed on. In cases like this one, she knew that the smallest detail could give them the key, but all she got was a chorus of mumbled apologies. "What about the escapees? Who are they?"

"There was a man, Roger Jones, arrested for minor theft," Ryan explained, sticking a mugshot to the whiteboard. "This other guy, Oliver West, is a suspected murderer from a case we're working on. The victim was stabbed three times. He was her husband."

All the people in the room were so focused on Ryan's words that you could hear a pin drop. "This guy," he continued, "is Mark Collins. He was arrested late last night for disorderly conduct. Apparently, he was drunk and disturbing some patrons at a restaurant."

"None of them have the resources to orchestrate a hit this big, on a police precinct, no less," Beckett commented.

"No, none of them could do it," Ryan agreed. "But this man could. Meet Cormac Flanagan, head of the O'Connell clan."

"An Irish mobster."

"And a distinguished one at that. He's being investigated regarding a major drug business."

"Narcotics brought him in yesterday, right?" Beckett questioned.

"Yeah, but none of the detectives working the case were on the night shift, and they hadn't arrived yet when the lights went out."

"Was any officer involved in the case here?"

"I'll check," a detective from the Narcotics department offered.

"Okay, send them to my office," Beckett agreed.

Then, a commotion could be heard from the bullpen, and Beckett dismissed the meeting as she saw a couple of officers guiding one of the escapees towards her.

"Put him in Interrogation One," Beckett instructed. "Ryan?"

"On it," he nodded, already on his way to the room.

* * *

He wasn't one for small talk, but without the occasional chirp of his radio, the quiet hall outside the precinct locker room was almost eerie; Kyle couldn't help filling the space with something other than the hum of the lights.

"Hell of a way to finish a shift, huh?" he said, looking over his shoulder at the pair. He watched them share a look, but didn't ask what it was about; it wasn't his business, after all.

"Ah, yeah," Mark agreed after a moment. "It was a double, too."

"Ouch." Kyle winced. He knew how that went. All too well.

"Yeah, tell me about it," the guy grumbled. "I'm beat, and now I can't even go home and crash. I was so ready to get out of here."

"Tough break, man. Maybe it'll be over sooner than we think. It was probably a precaution anyway." Glancing at Reynolds, he asked, "Were you just starting for the day?"

The taller of the two grunted. "It's time for early shift to start, isn't it? Or it was."

Okay, he had him there. It was a stupid question.

"Hey, do you think we get OT for this?" Mark asked, pulling a chuckle from his lips. "'Cause I'd be okay with that. Might need a Monster from the vending machine, but that's doable, right?"

Kyle snorted, looking around a corner before motioning for them to follow him. "You have Monsters in your machines?" he asked. "What floor are you on?"

"Robbery," Reynolds said at the same time Mark answered,

"Vice."

"Ahh," he said, glancing at them out of the corner of his eye. "I'm in homicide; we just have soda."

"Great," Reynolds drawled. "You want to talk about the snack machines now, too? Does your supe hand out gummi bears at the start of your shift every day?"

Holding up a hand, Kyle shook his head. "Just making conversation. It's just like being out on patrol; gotta pass the time somehow."

He didn't give his companions the opportunity to respond; instead he motioned for them to check behind the storage room door.

"Nada," Reynolds murmured, closing the door behind them. "Where to next?"

Kyle looked around. This floor was clear. "We head downstairs," he said, thinking back to the lockdown procedures they'd drilled into his head. Under normal circumstances, they were supposed to report in and wait for orders, but with the radio at his hip unresponsive, he decided to go with plan B. "Until we find someone to tell us what's going on."

"Hernandez, that you?"

Kyle spun, allowing a sliver of relief to work its way into his chest. "Detective Hyun," he greeted, nodding to the man whose case he'd helped wrap just a few hours ago. "Good to see you. You, too, Krezel," he added, nodding to the other officer.

Krezel nodded in return, looking past him to his companions.

Kyle gestured in introduction. "Reynolds and-"

"Williams," Mark supplied when Kyle came up fumbling for his last name.

"Williams," he echoed. "They're in Robbery and Vice." He waited a beat while everyone got acquainted. "What's going on? Why the lockdown?"

Hyun squared his shoulders. "No phones, no radios, as you've probably figured out. Parker's dead and the prisoners in holding are gone. Beckett's ordered a top-to-bottom search of the building. Nobody gets in or out of the building until they're found."

"Parker's dead?" he repeated, swallowing hard. He'd had lunch with the man two days ago, and now he was dead? In his own precinct?

"Afraid so," Hyun confirmed. "So we're just doing a straight sweep, two people on each side of the corridor. Remember, there's no radio if the power goes out and we get separated, so stay close."

The group nodded as one.

"This floor's clear," Kyle said, glancing back at the others. "We were about to head downstairs."

Hyun hummed in confirmation, motioning for them to follow. "Then let's move."

* * *

"So what can you tell me?" Castle asked as he let himself into his former office.

Thanks to a slowdown on the subway, Esposito had beaten him to the P.I. office by almost ten minutes if his text was to be believed. But since the detective had arrived earlier, Rick hoped maybe he and Hayley had started working on this without him.

"Well, hello to you, too, Rick," Hayley drawled from the inner office. "I'm doing fine, thank you. It's good of you to ask."

Grimacing, Castle called an apology, stepping into the room a moment later. His eyes widened when he spotted his daughter seated beside Hayley at his old desk.

"Alexis?"

She flashed him a quick smile. "Hi, Dad."

"What are you doing here?" he asked, looking to the other occupants of the room for an explanation. He knew Alexis still helped with P.I. work on occasion, but she had made a point to focus on school, as they had agreed on. He could hardly believe his firstborn would be graduating from college in just a few weeks. It felt like she had just started at Columbia.

Alexis looked at Esposito, then back at Rick. "The same reason you both are, I think. Something's going on at the precinct?"

Castle blinked. "How did you know about that? Esposito just called me a few minutes ago."

His daughter's cheeks reddened. "Kyle and I had plans for when he got off work. I was supposed to pick him up at the precinct, but when I showed up to meet him, the entire building was dark and the phones were being really weird. I waited for a while, but he didn't come outside, so I came here to see if I could find out why." She lifted an eyebrow. "You?"

Castle glanced at Esposito, waiting a beat before telling his daughter the truth. "The precinct is under lockdown."

Alexis straightened, sharing a look with Hayley. "What? Why?"

Esposito shook his head. "We don't know. That's what _we_ came here to figure out."

"Are they in trouble?"

Beckett's message to 1PP had said they had things under control in spite of the situation, and he had confidence in that. He didn't like not knowing, but he trusted his wife.

"We'll figure it out," he murmured, checking his phone just to make sure that Kate hadn't responded to his texts while he wasn't looking. The ones he'd sent from the subway hadn't even been delivered; something was definitely going on with the system.

Hayley was the one to speak up next, tapping her fingernails against the desk. "What do we know so far?"

"Comms are down," Esposito started. "Nothing on my radio, and I couldn't even get a phone signal when I was outside the building."

"Very down," Castle added, pointing to the undelivered messages on his phone. "These haven't even been delivered yet."

Hayley nodded.

"Calls aren't going through, either," Alexis said. "I tried calling Kyle on my way over here; it went straight to voicemail, didn't even ring, but I know his phone is on, because we had plans."

"And you said the place was dark when you showed up?" Hayley asked, looking at Alexis for confirmation.

"Yeah. It was really weird."

Esposito shook his head. "Lights were on when I got there, but those could've been the backups. The building was locked down either way, no getting in or out. That's not standard blackout protocol."

"Maybe Beckett was operating on an abundance of caution?" Castle offered as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Locking the place down because of the communications outage?"

Again, Esposito shook his head. "No, she'd want to keep the precinct open to the outside in that case. If nobody can call in…"

"They'd have to come in instead," he finished for him. "I get it."

"So something is wrong," Alexis supplied, clearing her throat.

Castle looked around the room, finding the same conclusion on Esposito and Hayley's faces.

"Looks like it," he confirmed.

Alexis nodded. "So where do we start?"

"Alexis and I will look into the power and communications outage," Hayley said, already moving back to the computer. "But we need eyes on the precinct."

"I'll go," Castle said, hearing the same words come from Esposito as he made his way to the door.

"Castle," Espo snapped. "What'd I say before? You need to stay put. Figure out what you can from here, and I'll be in touch."

The detective turned without another word, making his way to the door.

Castle waited, counting to fifteen in his head before he turned to his daughter and Hayley. Neither woman looked surprised to see him plotting. If anything, they waved him on.

"I'll let you know what we find," Hayley said.

Rick nodded, giving Espo another few seconds for his head start. "Likewise."


	3. Chapter 3

On a normal day, Beckett would let a few minutes pass before she went into the room to interrogate a person of interest. That strategy worked more times than not, as anticipation was a strong weapon against most suspects. But this day was anything but normal, and time was of the essence, so she marched into the room even before Oliver West was cuffed to the table. She took a seat while Ryan lingered behind the man, and the show began.

"My people tell me you were hiding in a storage closet. Find anything interesting?" She waited for a beat and then continued. "Why did you run?"

She was met with silence, so she kept staring at West until he looked at her, and then she repeated her question. "Why did you run?"

"You're accusing me of murdering my wife. I saw a chance of escaping and I took it."

"Did you really think you were going to be able to leave the precinct? Without knowing the building?"

"I had to act fast. When the lights went out, I was confused at first, but then I heard the rest of the prisoners running, so I followed them."

"And where are they now?"

"I lost them in the darkness."

"What happened in there?" Ryan asked, resting a hand on the table and the other on the back of West's chair, effectively cornering the man. "Who killed Officer Parker?"

The man smiled slyly in response. "If you don't know, I won't tell you."

"You will be charged with accessory to murder if you don't tell us what you saw," Beckett stated calmly.

"I'm already being charged with murder," West shrugged. "And what makes you think I'd want to help the people who are putting me behind bars?"

"Listen to me," Beckett said, standing up and leaning towards the man across the table as far as her belly permitted, "there's a dead cop. We don't take these things lightly. This could ruin your life. But if you cooperate—"

"I want my lawyer," the man interrupted.

"That's not possible," Beckett answered. "The precinct is on lockdown."

That only made West's smile widen. "Then you have a problem."

* * *

If there was one thing Esposito could count on, it was Castle not following directions.

He'd been under no illusions that the writer would stay put at the P.I. office, but Castle wasn't even subtle when he strolled toward the precinct behind him.

"What'd I tell you?" Esposito asked anyway, watching his friend's steps falter.

"That you could use a second set of eyes, and despite the other fine officers I see waiting out here, I'm the best you've got?"

Esposito rolled his eyes. "Funny, I don't remember it going that way."

Castle shrugged, stepping closer, no doubt assuming Esposito wasn't going to shoot him for disobeying. "Potato, po-tah-to. Besides, pretty much everyone else who could help is in there." They both turned to check the exterior of the precinct as he continued, "So you're stuck with me. These guys and me."

Esposito glowered, but had to concede that point. "Fine. Yell if you see something, anything, out of the ordinary."

The writer nodded, jerking his thumb to the left. "I'll take this side of the block and you take that one?"

He hesitated, but agreed. They would cover more area by splitting up, and if he flagged down one of the other unis to help, maybe Castle wouldn't be able to get himself into trouble.

"But remember," he warned as one of the rookies joined them, ready to offer his assistance, "you yell for me. Because I don't want Beckett murdering me if something happens to–"

Castle waved him off. "I'll call – yell," he amended. "Unless I find a crew of modern-day pirates smuggling treasure out of the building next door."

"Castle."

" _Kidding_."

Espo shook his head, turning to get the search started.

All things considered, the area looked normal. Same cars parked on the street as always, same hot dog stand at the end of the block, though he noted the vendor hadn't yet arrived to open for the day. He knew the next shift had been told to head to another precinct, but as Castle had pointed out, there were more than a few officers who had either not gotten the message from 1PP, or had chosen to show up anyway and see what they could do from the outside. Esposito had to admit, he was grateful for the fact that Marisa had the day off; it lifted a weight off his shoulders to know he didn't have to worry about her, too.

The thing that seemed the most out of place was the lack of traffic, but he had a feeling that was due to the inconspicuous unmarked cars diverting people away.

"Hey, 'Sito! Come look at this!"

He turned in the direction of Castle's call, squinting into the sunlight to see his friend and Officer Lanzotti halfway down the block, motioning to the narrow service alley for the building across from the precinct.

Thinking better of making Castle yell his findings across the street, Esposito jogged to meet them.

"What am I looking at?"

Castle's head tilted toward the alley once more, indicating for Esposito to lead the way. Together, they worked their way down the wall, careful not to startle anyone who might have been waiting for them behind the blacked-out van windows. Once he was satisfied that the area was clear, and the vehicle unoccupied, Esposito and the rookie approached the rust bucket.

"Parked the wrong way," Esposito observed, checking the tires. "Could be a mistake."

"Could be a getaway vehicle, too. Call me crazy," Castle murmured, checking the sign on wall behind the van, "but this piece of junk doesn't look like it would be making deliveries to a high-end bakery like _Amélie's_."

Esposito peered through one of the windows, finding it devoid of anything to suggest it had carried flour or supplies the business might need.

"You're crazy," he muttered. "But you're also probably right about that."

"Up for a macaron this morning, Detective, Officer?"

 _Amélie's_ hadn't yet opened for the day when they approached after instructing the other officers to continue searching the perimeter in pairs, but a flash of his badge was all the older woman behind the counter needed to see to usher Esposito, Castle, and Officer Lanzotti inside. Castle greeted her by name – Estele – smiling with his usual charm, which seemed to put her at ease.

"What can I do for you?" she asked, moving back to the counter to continue moving pastries from a pan to a display case.

"Have you seen anything out of the ordinary this morning?" Esposito asked, cutting right through it even as Castle dug in his pocket for his wallet and requested half a dozen of the St. Honoré pastries. "Really bro?"

"Beckett likes them," Castle said, lifting a shoulder. Behind them, the rookie snickered.

Estele made quick work of folding the box and lining it with parchment paper.

"Anything out of the ordinary?" she repeated once she had completed the first layer of pastries. "What do you mean? New York is always a little out of the ordinary, if you ask me."

Well, she wasn't wrong about that. This city was a weird place sometimes.

"Have you had any deliveries this morning?" Castle jumped in, trading the pastry box for the cash in his hand. He waved Estele off when she reached into her apron to make change.

The older woman shook her head. "No, I just got here. I overslept again," she sighed. "Bakery hours don't seem to be agreeing with me as well as they used to."

Castle nodded in commiseration, casting a subtle glance in Esposito's direction. He was up again.

"In the service alley, Ma'am," Esposito softened his tone, "there's a panel van in the space reserved for your business. Dark windows, nobody inside. Is that your vehicle?"

She hesitated. Just for a split second, but it was enough to catch his eye. "No, no that's not mine."

Castle must have caught it, too, because he leaned across the counter. "Do you know whose it is?"

Estele exhaled. "Last week, I was on my way into the shop when he stopped me and gave me five thousand dollars to allow him to use the space today."

"Can you tell us his name?" Castle asked, looking around the store for security cameras. Esposito had to give him credit for that; crazy theories aside, Castle really did think like a cop.

She shook her head. "No, he never gave me a name. He said he needed the space for today specifically and handed me the money right then. My expenses keep going up, and five thousand dollars... I-I didn't ask questions."

"What about a description? Do you remember what he looked like? What he was wearing?" Esposito asked, touching his pen to paper.

Estele's brow furrowed in thought. "He was wearing a dark jacket with a hood and jeans, and he was tall. But at 4'11", who isn't to me?"

Espo felt his lips lift. She had a point there. "What else can you tell us about him? Did you see his hair or his eyes?"

She shook her head. "No, his hood covered most of that. But," she added after a moment, tapping the counter. "I can tell you what kind of car he was driving when he left."

* * *

Staring out of the windows of her office, Beckett mentally reviewed everything they knew about the attack, which admittedly wasn't too much. It didn't make any sense. The blackout could be a coincidence that the prisoners had used to their advantage to make a run for it, but the timing was too convenient. Not to mention that the blackout wouldn't cause the cells to open. Someone had to open them from the outside. And to top it off, the phones and radios weren't working. Something big was happening, and she had no means to figure out what it was with a bunch of criminals running rampant in her precinct. All the stress was making her feel more pregnant than ever, and dealing with a case this difficult while alternating with frequent trips to the ladies' room was testing Beckett's patience.

"You okay, Boss?" Ryan asked, entering her office with a file in his hand.

"Fine. Any news?"

"West is still not cooperating. We're letting him stew for a little longer before we try again."

"Have we managed to access the camera footage from before the blackout?"

"Not yet, the system's still rebooting. It seems like the backup generator is not as strong as we wished. And Vikram is still working on reestablishing communication with the outside."

"Okay, what about the search teams? Any progress?"

"Glad you asked," Ryan smiled. "Two of the prisoners are still on the loose, but we've finished the sweep of the first floor, and we found Flanagan banging on one of the emergency doors, trying to exit the building."

Beckett felt a new rush of adrenaline. Finally, they were making some progress. "Good. Have you checked his file? We need to nail this interrogation. I have a feeling he's our guy."

Ryan gestured to the folder he was holding. "Yes, he's a tough one, this Flanagan. He's had more than a few encounters with the law."

"Okay, you've got this one."

* * *

Ryan's time undercover had been useful for him in many ways. For one, he had dealt with a lot of Flanagans over the years and he knew the things that made them tick. And he also knew how to lie, and therefore, how to spot a liar.

Flanagan's posture didn't betray anything. His expression was completely blank, but the corners of his lips twitched in a tiny smug way. Ryan dropped the folder on the table and sat down slowly in front of the man.

"Hello, Mr. Flanagan, did you enjoy your stroll around the building?"

"Very much, thank you. It's always pleasant to stretch my legs. We spend too much time sitting down nowadays," the man answered, unperturbed by Ryan's sarcastic tone.

"You were brought here last night, am I correct?"

"You are," Flanagan nodded politely.

"According to this," Ryan made a show of reading the file on the table, "Narcotics has a pretty strong case against you."

"That's to be determined by a judge."

"Of course but I know that this far into the game, things can get a little... desperate."

Bingo. The collected expression of Flanagan faltered for a tiny instant, and Ryan smelled victory. So Flanagan was a proud man... interesting.

"Do I look desperate?"

Ryan ignored the man's question. "I've seen hundreds of variations of escaping attempts but honestly, a blackout? Your creativity is to be admired."

"Excuse me?" Flanagan seemed a little surprised, which was more emotion than he had showed during the whole conversation.

"Who's helping you, Flanagan?"

"Do you think I planned this mess?" The man laughed coolly. "When? I was arrested a few hours ago. And, if you've seen half of the things you say, you'll know that the best opportunity to escape is when a prisoner is being transferred, not inside a police station."

Okay, the man had a point there. "Why did you run, then?"

Flanagan shrugged one shoulder, transmitting nonchalance. "Like I said: it's good to stretch my legs."

Ten minutes later, Ryan exited the interrogation room and met Beckett in the hallway.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"He insists he didn't do it, and that he saw another of the prisoners pretend to have a seizure to get Parker to open the cells, but he doesn't know which one," Ryan explained. "He says he wasn't paying attention."

Beckett sighed and they both remained silent for a few moments, deep in thought.

"Wait a moment, did you just say that a prisoner faked a seizure to attack Parker?"

"Yes, that's what Flanagan said."

"Was it before or after the blackout?"

"He didn't say, but it had to be before, or they wouldn't have had the time to escape," Ryan replied.

"So whoever that prisoner was, he knew about the blackout before it happened, and he used it to attack Parker."

"Yes, but if he knew about the blackout, he had to know that the backup generator would be running almost immediately, so he wouldn't have time to escape."

"Flanagan is right," Beckett concluded. "This is too sloppy for the mafia. It's too easy for something to go wrong. There are too many variables."

"And still, it's too organized to be spontaneous: the comms, the blackout..." Ryan commented.

"Maybe it wasn't about escaping..." Beckett began, only for Ryan to join her in completing the sentence. "It was about the murder!"

For a moment, they stared at each other in triumph, until Ryan blinked, snapping out of his daze. "Did we just have a Caskett moment?"

"A what?" Beckett asked, confused.

"Never mind. So what do we do now?"

Beckett smiled, the first true smile Ryan had seen on her face the entire day. "We treat this like any other murder. And we start with the victim. Get a new whiteboard, we have work to do."


	4. Chapter 4

"Anything yet?"

Falling back to the P.I. office hadn't been ideal course of action, but after their interview with Estele and a secondary sweep of the street in front of the precinct, Esposito hadn't been able to find any reason not to return. He didn't like it, though; standing around idle while Ryan and Beckett were dealing with who-knew-what on their own didn't sit well with him. But he conceded that Castle was correct in reasoning that they might be able to speed up the process of getting an ID on the man who had paid off Estele for her parking space.

Although both women looked up at the question, Alexis was the one to answer. "Working on it. Hayley had to do some magic to access the archive for the camera footage, since it was already a week old, but we're going through it now."

"What about the comms?" Castle asked, earning a look of reproach from Hayley.

"We're working as fast as we can on every angle. From both what you've said and looking at traffic from the cell towers, it's obviously an isolated incident – and a purposeful one at that."

Esposito glanced at Castle. "So someone intentionally cut the precinct off?"

Hayley's head bobbed. "That's what it looks like. And given the proximity of your mystery man's van, plus the timing of him needing to park it there _today_ …"

"We didn't see anything in the van that looked like signal-jamming equipment, though. Just fast food garbage and some other crap."

"What about the rest of the street?"

Espo shook his head. "Didn't see anything there, either."

"It's possible he took it inside one of the buildings," Hayley offered. "Wherever he is, I think it's a safe assumption that he has at least something to do with both the lockdown and the communication outage."

Esposito watched Castle's back straighten, his earlier tension returning at the thought. "Then we need to find this guy."

"Yes we do- oh!" Alexis called, looking up with excited eyes. "I think I got him."

Within seconds, the four of them had crowded around Alexis's computer, watching the late-90s model sedan turn a corner. They couldn't see the guy's clothing, but the dent on the front bumper matched the description Estele had given them.

"Can you get a clear view of the plate?"

"Trying. I'm going to cross-check this timestamp with one of the cameras a block or two away, and hopefully… yes!" Alexis clapped her hands together, taking a screenshot of the traffic cam and blowing it up to full screen.

"Now we just need to run the plate, and hopefully we'll get a name," she concluded, glancing in Hayley's direction.

The other woman nudged Esposito out of the way, leaning over her keyboard. "I am already on it."

Unorthodox or not, Hayley's methods were certainly effective. Within a few minutes he and Castle were striding out of the office to head downtown and pay Mr. Arthur Collins a little visit.

Of course, it wasn't that easy; as soon as they entered the engineering firm's masculine, but crisply decorated office, the admin at the front started throwing up roadblocks.

"I'm sorry, Detective, but Mr. Collins isn't here today."

"Would you be able to tell us where he is? It's important that we speak to him as soon as possible."

The woman smiled, but it didn't come close to reaching her eyes. "I'm sorry, I can't give out that kind of information."

"Not even when he'll be back?" Castle asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Is that because you don't want to, or because you don't know?"

Her already insincere smile turned sour. "He has a morning meeting. He'll be back this afternoon. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you." She turned back to her computer, letting the tap of her manicure on the keys signal their dismissal.

Frustration bubbled in Esposito's chest. They were stuck. Hunches and accounts from old ladies aside, there was nothing they could bring to the table to even get a judge involved.

They needed a new plan – fast.

"I have a delivery for Sandra! Delivery for Sandra."

Three heads snapped up, looking to the entrance of the suite to find an impressive display of flowers and balloons preceding a less impressive guy in an ill-fitting grey uniform. Lackluster messenger aside, the admin jumped to her feet, touching her hand to her chest on her way around the desk.

"You're kidding? This is for me?"

"If you're Sandra," the guy responded, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Then yep."

"I didn't – are you sure this is for me?"

Esposito caught Castle's eye, jerking his head toward the hallway behind the front desk. His friend nodded, needing no further encouragement to take a careful step back, ducking out of sight as soon as Sandra's back was turned.

He waited, watching the admin gush over the "sweet and amazing" gift she had been given, mentally counting down the seconds until she realized that one of the room's occupants had gone missing. With any luck, the bored delivery man's glacial pace with the paperwork would buy them another minute or two, but still his finger hovered over Castle's name, poised to recall him and get the hell out of there.

"Thank you so much, again," Sandra gushed, signaling her willingness to move on with her day.

Esposito twitched, tapping his phone screen at the same time Castle's firm hand landed on his shoulder.

"Think I got something," the writer murmured, talking out of the corner of his mouth. "Let's go."

They covered the room in three short strides, skirting around the display to make a beeline for the elevator.

"Well?" Espo asked once the doors slid closed.

Castle grinned, brandishing a post-it note. "Found his notepad in the garbage, which seemed odd since it was almost completely full. So I did the old pencil trick, and this guy's name popped up: Adam Reynolds."

Esposito frowned. That name... "Wait, let me see that." He snatched the paper from between Castle's fingers, ignoring his grumble about paper cuts. "I know this guy. He works down in Robbery."

* * *

With another floor cleared, they had yet to even get a bead on the escaped prisoners.

Detective Hyun was frustrated, that much was readily obvious, and Kyle couldn't say he blamed him. Aggravation, along with the sense that something just wasn't _right_ , had started to creep up his spine, too. The power hadn't been out for that long; even moving at top speeds, the likelihood that anyone had made it out of the building before Captain Beckett ordered the lockdown was slim. Which meant they had to be here, in the building somewhere.

"Another bust," he murmured, looking around the Narcotics floor one last time. Beside him, Krezel swore.

Yeah, he knew the feeling. A murderer was in their precinct somewhere, and they were busy playing hide and seek with him.

"We just have to keep moving," Hyun said, shaking his head. "There's nothing else we can do until we get these guys."

He was right, but that didn't make it feel any better.

"All right, let's go," the detective ordered, motioning for them move into the stairwell. "Keep moving down. Faster we move, the faster we finish."

The others nodded, following him without a word. Kyle watched Hyun and Krezel's heads swivel, checking for trouble both above and below.

"Clear," Krezel murmured, taking the steps with measured strides. Reynolds and Williams did the same, while Kyle took the stairs last.

Glancing behind him, he frowned. His uneasiness hadn't abated. If anything, it had spiked, wrapping itself around his heart with a squeeze.

Something was just... off, but he hadn't managed to put his finger on exactly what it was just yet.

His feet had just touched the bottom step when a shadow above them caught his eye. There was a window higher in the stairwell, but it was a gray day and light just didn't bend that way.

"Hyun," Kyle murmured, lowering his chin once he had the detective's attention. "I think–"

The shadow scrambled away, moving higher up the stairs, their footfalls heavy on the concrete. It was one of the escapees, it had to be.

"Go!" Hyun ordered, pushing past him and leading the group in pursuit. The others scrambled behind him, and Kyle watched as they took the stairs two at a time, wincing at the echo of the detective's shouts for the prisoner to stop.

"I got him!" Krezel announced, pulling past the others. "I got – Williams, what the hell?"

Kyle watched Mark ignore Krezel's call and dart ahead, gaping when the officer wrapped his fingers around the escapee's ankle and pulled.

The prisoner yelped, his eyes widening in shock as he went down. "Hey! Wait you're–"

His head glanced off the step and he slumped, out cold.

"Sorry," Mark grunted when the rest of the party joined him. Kyle made a note of the look Williams and Reynolds shared. "I just knew I could grab him fast."

Krezel continued to glare. "Yeah, and now we have to haul his unconscious ass to Captain Beckett. Are you gonna carry him?"

"Look, at least we _got_ the guy," Mark argued. "We could still be looking."

"Alright, break it up," Hyun ordered, stepping between them. "Hernandez, you stay with these two. Let's assume he was heading upstairs to rendezvous, so head up there. Krezel, you're with me. We have a suspect to deliver to the captain."

Kyle nodded, forcing a deep breath through his lungs. "Yes, sir." He stepped behind Williams and Reynolds, giving the detective and their fellow officer room to hoist the prisoner off the steps. "Let's go."

* * *

"You're sure it's him?" Castle asked, following Esposito's quick climb up the steps to Adam Reynolds's apartment. He was getting winded trying to keep up with Espo's pace, but he wasn't about to tell him that.

Since getting the officer's name from Arthur Collins's office, the detective had been moving at warp speed, practically flying to the car and ordering Castle to sit down and hang on as they crossed the island to Queens.

"No, but it'd be a hell of a coincidence for Collins to have _another_ Adam Reynolds's name on a paper in his office the same day the guy arranged to park across from the police station where Adam works."

Castle couldn't disagree with that. He didn't have much reason to, either. Instead, he put his head down and continued up the stairs behind Esposito. Just one more floor to go.

As rundown as the building was, the exterior walls still filtered out an impressive amount of noise from the street below. The interior ones, on the other hand? Not so much. The moment Castle and Esposito stepped up to Adam Reynolds's door, they heard signs of distress: bumping, muffled calls for help, a few choice words that – had they been more intelligible – probably weren't fit for young ears.

Esposito didn't wait to be told to kick the door in, storming into the apartment to clear it without a word or a look back.

"NYPD, anybody in here?"

Another thump answered the question.

"Here," Castle pointed, moving to a closet near the front door. Esposito nodded, taking position as Castle's fingers closed around the handle, turned, and pulled.

Adam Reynolds came tumbling out, his arms and legs bound, a strip of duct tape covering his mouth.

"What the hell?" Esposito squatted, holstering his gun before dragging the man upright. Castle winced at his less than delicate approach to taking the duct tape off, but Reynolds didn't seem to mind.

Reynolds smacked his lips together, clearing his throat and gesturing for Espo to untie his hands and feet. Castle straightened, ducking into the kitchen to get the officer a glass of water.

Once he had soothed his throat, Reynolds took a deep breath. "I was getting ready to crash after my shift last night and this guy knocked on the door. He said he was from the cable company. Service has been on the fritz lately and I didn't know if it was my box, or the wiring, or whatever, so I let him in. He must've drugged me or something, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the freaking closet, tied up and tasting duct tape."

Castle shared a look with Esposito before fishing his phone from his pocket and pulling up Arthur Collins's picture.

"Was this your cable guy?"

Reynolds nodded, taking another swig of water. "Yeah, yeah that's the guy."

"Talk about lousy service," Castle said, putting his phone away. "You might want to get your bill prorated for that."

Esposito rolled his eyes. "He wasn't from the cable company, Reynolds. His name's Arthur Collins. Do you know him?"

Reynolds shook his head.

"Know _of_ him?" Esposito tried. Again, Reynolds shook his head.

"I've never seen him before in my life. What's going on?"

Castle sighed, rubbing a hand over his forehead. "He was staking out the precinct for some reason. He rented a parking space across the street, and he may have had a hand in jamming phone and radio signals to cut the precinct off from the outside world."

"What? Why?"

He shook his head. "That we don't know. But before he knocked you out, do you remember anything at all? Him looking around? Showing any interest in your things?"

"You mean like money?"

"Anything," Castle insisted. "Money, an address book, your log book," he trailed off as Reynolds paled. The officer got to his feet, holding onto Espo's arm until the unsteadiness in his legs passed.

Both Castle and Esposito followed him as he stumbled to his bedroom.

"It's gone."

"What is?" Esposito asked, crowding into the doorway beside Castle.

Reynolds shoved a hand through his dark hair, ruffling the already messy strands. "My uniform. My gun, my badge, my log book. All of it is gone."

* * *

Not for the first time since her morning began, Beckett found herself pacing. She had been on her feet far too often today, but she hated sitting idle in her office, scanning the frequencies on her walkie-talkie to see if anything worked. Without radios, it was all a guessing game as to what was going on inside her precinct, and without the phones, she had no idea what was happening outside, either. Although she assumed Esposito had contacted Castle after hearing from 1PP, she had no way of calling her husband to assure him that she was fine, and no way of bringing in any other backup. She couldn't even send an email at the moment since they had yet to regain internet access.

In the meantime, Ryan was running a background check on Officer Parker, trying to prove that their hunch was right, and the attack on her precinct was nothing but an elaborate murder. She would like to help him, but as Captain, her priority was to ensure the safety of her people. And she was starting to lose her patience.

"How's it coming, Vikram?" she asked on her third pass by the tech room, startling the analyst upright. His fingers never faltered, flying over the keyboard, even as he attempted to explain to her what he was doing.

"I think I've found a way to jam the jammer – effectively cancel it out – until we can find whatever's actually causing the signal blockage and remove it."

Beckett nodded. "So we would be able to contact our people, inside and outside?" she summarized.

"With any luck," Vikram confirmed. "I know I can do the radios – that's just a matter of finding the right frequency. It might take a few minutes extra to get the phones, though."

"We need both," she murmured, looking over her shoulder, hoping their secondary search team had returned with more information – or even better, the remaining prisoners and her people who were still unreachable. "So whatever you need to do, do it."

"Should just be another minute," he said, his voice taking on that far away quality that told her he'd slipped back into the zone without either of them noticing. That was fine; whatever got the work done faster.

She was about to slip from the room instead of continuing to stare at his temple when he slapped his hands on the desk.

"Done. Radios should be back up. Give it a try while I work on the phone side."

Unclipping the radio from her belt, Beckett hailed her people. "It's Beckett, report."

Releasing the button, she waited a beat only to hear silence in return. "Vikram, it's not–"

"Try again," he insisted, his fingers still flying over the keyboard. "Nobody turned their radios off, right?"

"They better not have," she muttered, depressing the button and barking for an update from anyone in range.

Within seconds, the radio in her hand sprang to life with people reporting in. Mentally, she went over the duty roster, making a note of those still unaccounted for after the roll call: Officers Hernandez and Krezel, and Detective Hyun. Hernandez had gotten off shift just prior to the blackout, so it was possible he had made it out before the lockdown, but given that nobody remembered seeing him leave, she was working on the assumption that he was still in the building.

Given that two levels were clear and the team had been moving onto a third some time ago, she didn't hesitate to redirect them. "We've still got two prisoners missing and two, possibly three of our own people who aren't answering their radios. Find them."

Pushing her hair off her forehead, Beckett glanced at Vikram. "Okay, what about the phones?"

He tapped a few keys before offering her a triumphant smile. "We should be back in business. Try it."

Thanking him, she spun on her heel, making a beeline for her office. She had a list half a mile long of people she needed to get in contact with immediately, but the first call was going to her husband.


	5. Chapter 5

Castle felt bad about leaving Adam Reynolds at the ER to worry, but trying to get the information they had just learned to someone who could help Beckett and the rest of the precinct was far more important.

Which was why he found himself standing outside the 12th Precinct for the second time that day. They just needed a way inside, a way to pass along the message that the Adam Reynolds who had reported for duty wasn't the real officer.

"Do you see anyone?" he asked, watching Esposito peer in the windows. The detective nodded, pounding his fist on the glass.

"Hey! Sarge, let us in!" Esposito yelled, when the desk sergeant tasked with guarding the door approached, only to have him shake his head.

"Captain's orders, Detective. Nobody in or out."

Espo made a noise of disgust. "We have information for Beckett. Let us in."

"We could break in," Castle suggested, only partially serious. Esposito shook his head.

"With him standing right there? Besides, the glass is bullet-proof, bro. What makes you think you're going to be able to Rocky it into submission?"

"Okay then, what's your plan?"

"I don't know yet, Castle," Esposito sighed, exasperated. "But I know we need to track down someone who'll be helpful."

Obviously.

Castle exhaled, twisting on the sidewalk while Esposito attempted to strike a bargain that would allow the desk sergeant to leave his post to deliver their message as long as they stayed put. The crowd from earlier had dwindled, as most of the cops must have decided to report to the alternative precinct, but there were still a few stragglers hanging around. "What about another precinct? Or calling in backup from Gates?"

His friend nodded. "Believe me, that's on the list."

"Why not do it now?" he asked.

Esposito's reply was lost in the call of his name from the end of the block. Both men turned to find Alexis and Hayley practically jogging their way.

"We found something," Alexis announced as soon as they were close enough. "I would've called," she explained at their quizzical looks, "but for obvious reasons, it was easier to come down here."

Rick nodded. "It's okay. What'd you find?"

"Arthur Collins had two younger brothers, Mark and Jeremy. Jeremy was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of a police officer."

Castle licked his lips. Things were starting to make sense. A police precinct, a robbery officer's uniform. It was poetic, in a terrible kind of way. "He's making a point. Wait, you said _had_? He _had_ two brothers?"

Alexis nodded, turning her tablet around. "Jeremy Collins died in prison two years ago."

"So he wants to get revenge for his brother. What about Mark?"

"I-" The shrill – and loud – trill of his cell phone interrupted before Alexis had the opportunity to finish her thought.

"It's Beckett!" he announced, accepting the call and pressing his phone to his ear. "Kate? Are you okay? I've been trying–"

"I'm okay, Castle," she interrupted, sounding tired, but otherwise fine. Just as she'd said. "It's been insane. Vikram just unjammed our phone and radio signal, and we're–"

"On lockdown, I know," he finished for her, slumping against the precinct's stone façade. "Esposito, Alexis, Hayley, and I are outside. We've been working it from our end, too."

His wife laughed, murmuring "Of course you have," almost to herself.

"What happened?"

"The power went out right after I got to work, and when it came back on, we discovered one of our officers down – dead – and the holding cells open. That's why I ordered the lockdown. Then we found out we couldn't radio or call out, either."

His stomach churned. "Have you found them yet? Beckett, let us in, we'll help you look – we'll call in backup from another precinct if we have to."

"No, nobody's opening the doors until everyone's accounted for. And," she paused, which only served to make him more nervous. "Officer Hernandez isn't answering his radio."

Castle purposefully didn't look at his daughter. If he did, she would know something else was up.

"Okay," he said instead, straightening a moment later with renewed urgency. "Beckett, there's something else – Adam Reynolds from Robbery isn't Adam Reynolds."

* * *

As disconcerting as the case was, Beckett felt better having her partner back at her side – or at her ear, as it happened. Deep down, she knew this whole mess was only a murder, and she had solved hundreds of those. She just needed to find the evidence to put all the pieces together. Keeping that in mind, she called Vikram to her office and put Castle, Esposito, Hayley, and Alexis on speakerphone.

"Okay, Castle, we're listening. What do you mean Reynolds isn't Reynolds? He isn't on shift today, and he's not scheduled to work again until tomorrow."

"We have been following some leads – I'll tell you later - but the important thing is that we found the real Reynolds gagged and tied up in his apartment," her husband explained. "A man named Arthur Collins took his uniform last night. We believe he's posing as Reynolds."

"Collins? That name sounds familiar..." Vikram commented.

"That's because one of the prisoners' name is Mark Collins," Beckett explained.

"Wait a second," came Alexis' voice through the speaker, "Arthur Collins has two brothers: Jeremy and Mark."

"That's too big of a coincidence. I bet Mark got himself arrested on purpose," Castle ventured.

"I think you're right," Beckett agreed. "He was brought in for disorderly conduct. That's easy to achieve. You just need to annoy the hell out of someone until they call the cops."

"But what for? What was his purpose?" Esposito intervened.

"We believe killing Officer Parker was their objective, and they caused the blackout to make it look like a random casualty in a prison escape."

"Makes sense," Castle said, and Beckett could almost hear the way his overactive mind processed all the new information. "And what do we know about Parker?"

"Not much," Beckett sighed. "He was a fairly outgoing person, according to his peers, but he also liked to keep to himself. He was transferred to the 12th a couple of years ago."

"Actually, Boss," Ryan started, joining the impromptu meeting, "I know something that might help us. I noticed he was transferred from the 23rd Precinct, so I called a friend who works there as soon as the phones were working again. He said there was a nasty case involving Parker. Apparently, another cop was killed. They found the person responsible thanks to Parker's testimony, but something must have happened, because he requested a transfer the very next week."

"What was the case?" Esposito asked.

"A robbery gone wrong. Parker and his partner were on patrol and they were called to check it out. When they got to the scene, there was a shootout and Parker's partner was killed. Parker testified, and they eventually got the shooter. It was one Jeremy Collins. He died in prison not so long after the event, during a riot, even before his own trial."

"Jeremy Collins? Isn't that Arthur and Mark's brother?" Beckett questioned.

All the pieces fell into place in Beckett's head. It was revenge against the cop who put their brother in jail, leading to his early demise.

"Captain," a voice called her from the office door. It was Detective Hyun. "We found another escapee, Roger Jones. He was knocked down, but he's just regained consciousness. He says the cop who knocked him out is the one who killed Officer Parker."

Understanding dawned. "Now we know their getaway plan," Beckett murmured.

"Probably safe to say if one brother was posing as a cop, then the other would be, too," Castle agreed. "Who'd you say you were with?"

"Krezel, Hernandez, a guy named Williams, and Reynolds," Hyun answered.

Even coming from the speaker, Alexis' gasp was perfectly audible. "Reynolds? That means..."

"It means Kyle Hernandez is alone with Arthur and Mark Collins," Beckett completed. She turned to Hyun. "Bring us to them."

* * *

"Hey, that was a hell of a tackle back there," Kyle murmured, pushing his shoulder against the wall at the entrance to the gym. "You play football?"

Mark eyed him. "Track. And the other guy didn't seem to think so."

Most good cops wouldn't. Especially knowing that Captain Beckett would have their head for a potentially dirty takedown. "Krezel's a good guy," he said instead. "He just doesn't like being waved off like that."

"You did kind of steal his thunder, Mark," Reynolds snickered. "And man, that guy's face when he went down. Ah-aaahhh," he mimicked, laughing into his arm when Kyle shot him a warning look.

"Oh, come on, it was a little funny."

"Cover me," he ordered, ignoring the rest in favor of ducking into the gym. Reynolds and Williams followed a second later, the scuff of their shoes on the wooden floor telling him exactly how far behind him they were.

His skin pricked with awareness, the instinct to fight bubbling at the edge of his mind.

The gym was empty. Quiet, too, save for the noise of the city breaking the barrier of the windows.

It didn't make sense. Yeah, with communications out, another team could've already apprehended the remaining prisoners, but that wasn't what was going on, not this time.

Kyle jolted at the familiar samba beat that echoed around the room, originating from the clip on his belt.

The phones were fixed?

Behind him, Reynolds and Williams stilled, something that sounded like protest coming from one of them. He couldn't make out exactly what was said as he lifted his phone to his ear.

"Hernandez."

"Kyle? Oh, I'm so glad you answered."

His shoulders sagged in relief. "Alexis? I'm so sorry about this morning. There's a situation at the precinct, and I–"

"I know," she cut him off. "It's okay. They're looking for you right now. Beckett's been trying to get you on your radio and you're not answering, but I took a chance and just called."

He wasn't answering? His radio hadn't made a sound since the blackout.

"Listen," she continued. "I've been helping try to figure it out all day. And Kyle? You need to know–"

It wasn't a good time. He trusted Alexis, and knew she had good intel to share, but it wasn't a good time. Not with Reynolds and Williams behind him.

"It's, well I can't really talk right now."

"Just listen. Listen, Kyle," she interrupted again, urgency lacing every word. "The two officers you're with? They're not officers. Their names are Arthur and Mark Collins. Arthur stole a robbery officer's uniform and his brother Mark was placed in holding last night on drunk and disorderly charges. They planned the blackout to kill Officer Parker."

All of this was planned to get to Will? "Why?" he asked, keeping his voice low. He couldn't tip his hand too soon; letting them know that he knew their identities likely wouldn't end well for him.

"Before he transferred to the Twelfth, he and his partner were on patrol when they were called to a robbery in progress. His partner was killed."

He remembered Will saying something to that effect when they'd first met. Parker hadn't volunteered many details, just said he'd taken his partner's death hard and needed to be somewhere new.

Alexis didn't wait for a response before continuing, "Jeremy Collins was convicted because of Parker's testimony; he died in prison two years ago. And today, Collins's brothers–"

"Orchestrated this entire thing," he concluded, bringing the story around to her original point.

"Right. And we need to get you out of there. Where are you?"

The gun at his back shouldn't have surprised him. "I knew we should've just knocked you out and made a run for it when we had the chance, but Arthur said to wait for the right time. Hang up the phone," Mark Collins ordered.

"Kyle," Alexis called. "Kyle are you there?"

"Just give me a second Mark, Reynolds," he answered. "I already stood my girlfriend up once today. I'd like for her not to dump me while I'm standing in the middle of the precinct gym."

Reynolds – not Reynolds – snatched the phone from his hand, tossing it to the floor. The screen cracked under his foot but, Kyle noticed, didn't disconnect the call.

"That's better."

"Turning my radio off was a good touch," Kyle said. "When'd you do that?"

Mark snorted. "Right after we left the locker room. You were distracted. It was easy. And it just goes to show that you cops are all idiots."

"You killed Officer Parker."

"He killed my brother – our brother," Mark hissed. "He _lied_ , so Jeremy went to prison, and our brother ended up _dead_."

Kyle turned, his hands raised in surrender. No doubt Alexis was in the process of telling the captain what she was hearing, where he was; he just needed to keep the Collins brothers talking until the cavalry arrived. "How did he lie, Mark? Arthur?"

The brothers shared a look, but Kyle remained stoic. "You broke into a police station, you caused a blackout and took out communications, and you killed a man. How did he lie?"

"Jeremy never went into that convenience store, even the owner said he didn't do it, but Parker pointed his finger at him and lo and behold, my brother went away for murder and robbery. Because the cops are the right ones, the just ones, the honest ones," Arthur spat. "Never mind that Parker was a loser who spent most of his days drunk on the job."

Mark picked up where his brother left off. "We'd almost gotten a judge to listen, to reconsider the conviction, and practically the next day we're being told to come down to the prison morgue to ID and pick up our brother's body. All because of Will Parker."

"So you decided to kill him," Kyle concluded, wondering if he was hearing the pound of footsteps outside the gym, or if it was just the thundering of blood through his ears.

Arthur exhaled, shifting his grip on the gun. "He had to pay for what he'd done. How was it fair that he got a cushy reassignment, got to get himself straight, and our brother got to die as he rotted in jail for something he didn't do? Jeremy was just a kid!"

"You're right," he reasoned, watching the door at the far end of the gym open. Krezel, LT, and Detectives Hyun and Ryan slipped inside, with Beckett halting in the doorway, her phone clenched in her hand. "It wasn't fair, and your brother deserved better, but you _killed_ a man in cold blood."

The Collins brothers stood taller, defiant. "He got what he deserved. He–"

"Mark and Arthur Collins," Ryan bellowed, distracting them just long enough for Kyle to stomp on Mark's foot, shove him to the ground, and strip his brother of the gun. Arthur landed beside Mark, giving the others the opportunity to come forward with handcuffs at the ready.

"Mark and Arthur Collins," Ryan repeated, gripping Mark under his bicep to haul him to his feet. Kyle watched Hyun do the same for Arthur. "You are under arrest for murder and conspiracy to commit murder, impersonating a police officer, and tampering with our communications."

The men said nothing as they were led away.

"Good work, Hernandez," Captain Beckett murmured once they were out of earshot, ending the call with a short tap of her index finger. "I was on the line the whole time. You kept your cool, kept them talking. Even with a gun on you. That's impressive."

Kyle looked down at the weapon in his hand. "Thank you, ma'am, but I have to admit something," he started, reaching into his waistband and brandishing a clip. "When Mark tackled the other prisoner, something just didn't feel right. So while they were having a staring contest with Krezel, I took the liberty of disarming Arthur. Just in case."

Beckett's lips lifted in an appreciative smile. "Clever."

"Thanks." Kyle bent at the waist, scooping his phone from the floor. The screen was mangled, but the rest of the device remained intact. "Thank goodness for cases, huh? Even thin ones."

The captain chuckled quietly. "Tell me about it. Castle knows a guy who'll fix that for you," she added, patting her belly.

"Oh, that'd be great." Kyle pocketed the phone. "Thanks, Captain."

"You're welcome. Now come on, we need to open this place back up; I'm sure Alexis is eager to get in to see you." Her lips twitched, but she kept them pursed, not allowing her amusement to escape.

His cheeks flushed at that, but he simply nodded, motioning for her to walk ahead of him. "You're probably right about that, ma'am. I imagine Mr. Castle feels the same way – more so, even – about getting in to see you."

This time, she actually laughed, rubbing her hand over her stomach. "Yes, you would be right about that."

* * *

As expected, Castle was the first one in the door the moment she lifted the lockdown order, but after the day she'd had, Kate couldn't bring herself to do more than welcome him with an embrace (tight despite the swell of her belly between them).

"I am so–" he breathed, hiding his face under the curtain of her hair. Beckett nodded in agreement, slipping a hand up his back to cradle his neck.

"I know. I know. So much for a relaxing last day, huh?"

Her husband chuckled, touching his mouth to the curve of her cheek. "That's one way to put it." His hand fell to her belly, subtly acknowledging their daughter and quieting Lily's kick-storm in one move. "What now?"

Arthur Collins and his brother were still in their respective interrogation rooms, awaiting the arrival of their respective lawyers. The van they had intended as their getaway vehicle had been swept by CSU and impounded. The other prisoners were in the process of being transferred to the 9th, where they would be processed for release or remand. CSU was still working on processing and cleaning the holding area, and Will Parker's body had already been taken to the morgue. The last thing she was waiting for was confirmation from Vikram that the jamming equipment he'd found attached to their main power conduit hadn't done any lasting damage to their system.

Beckett exhaled, stepping away to survey her squad room. The day shift was finally underway, though the stragglers from the night shift still stood around, swapping stories of the last few hours. Esposito and Ryan laughed together by Ryan's desk, and Alexis and Kyle Hernandez had taken a moment to greet each other, though she didn't let her eyes linger on them.

"As much as I'd like to say now I get my things and call it a day, I still have to finish up what I never got to start earlier."

Castle nodded, understanding warm on his face.

"Just can't leave, huh, Boss?" Ryan teased, stepping around the desks to join her at her office door. Esposito followed, eyeing her with amusement.

Beckett shook her head, settling her hand high on her belly. Lily kicked at her palm. "Not yet. It turns out that there's a pretty large amount of paperwork involved when your precinct gets cut off from the outside world for a few hours."

Her detectives chuckled.

"We don't envy you there," Esposito said. "The only thing I need to do now that I'm here is wait for a call. Gotta take advantage of not being in charge while I still can."

"Don't get too comfortable; I'm sure I could find something for you to do," she drawled, leaning into the hand Castle pressed to her back. As always, he'd found the exact spot that was aching. "I also need to contact Officer Parker's family, express my condolences."

That sobered the group. The boys lowered their heads, but Castle nodded. "What are you going to tell them? About why he…"

"I don't know," she sighed, resting her chin on her chest. Albeit she was constrained by what she could say until the DA decided how to pursue things against the Collins brothers, but even then, she was almost certain that knowing about Will Parker's past misdeeds wouldn't bring his family comfort. "I'll tell them enough."

Her husband's hand slid up and down her spine, offering his support for the difficult task she faced. Beckett smiled up at him once before turning to the boys again.

"But in the meantime, Ryan, Officer Hernandez," she called, getting the young man's attention. Alexis turned a sheepish smile on her as well. "Finish your reports and get out of here."

The young officer didn't need to be told twice. She watched Kyle clasp Alexis's hand in his as the pair turned toward the bank of desks the uniforms shared.

Alexis looked over her shoulder, giving them a wave. "Thanks, Kate. I'll text you later, Dad."

Beckett felt her husband relax beside her. "Thank you," he called.

"Boss," Ryan protested, getting her attention again. "It's still my shift. I'm staying until it's done."

"Besides," Esposito started, lifting a shoulder. "We had kinda planned to do something for you before you went home."

Emotion constricted her throat, pricking her eyes with irrational tears. Her precinct family was so good to her.

"Okay," she said after a moment, clearing her throat. "I can't wait for that."

She watched them share a grin. "Yeah, it is gonna be pretty spectacular," Ryan said, backing his partner up.

"Well," she hummed, offering them a lopsided smile. "In that case, get to work."

They laughed, stepping back.

"And you," she added, knocking her shoulder against Castle's. He caught her hand with soft fingers, giving her his full attention. "Come with me?"

Her husband grinned, canting toward her for a kiss she couldn't help but allow. They parted after a moment, and her lips lifted even higher when he spoke, "Always, Kate."

* * *

 _Episode beta work by acertainzest, amtepe, and ivyandtwine._

 _Castle Season 9 is produced by Team Planet and the writing team of Castle Season 9_ _. Executive Producer is acertainzest._

 _For a full list of Season 9 authors, please look at our ffnet profile._

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